http://paulcraig.blot.im
http://paulcraig.blot.im/friday-night-review-02-08-2019
http://paulcraig.blot.im/friday-night-review-02-08-2019Sat, 09 Feb 2019 00:00:00 -0600Before we get to the words… a moment of celebration.

A few days ago, I had my usual ninety-day review with my endocrinologist. These visits always produce a high level of anxiety. As a Type II diabetic with declining pancreatic function, it’s never the known that scares me. It’s the unknown.

You can test your glucose levels multiple times per day and have a general feeling as to what your ninety-day performance was. The rest of the tests are unknown until the labs return.

I’ve been wanting to cease taking one particular oral medication. A ninety-day supply costs over $1,200.00. This is absurd and I have a lot of choice words for big pharma. Medical clearance to stop this medication was my number one goal for this period.

For the past thirty days, I’d stopped taking this one particular pill. Against medical advice. AMA… this is often not a good decision. However, after a couple of days of my body adjusting to its absence, I felt confident in the decision.

So does my wonderful endocrinologist. I’ve gone from 100 units of long-acting insulin a day and seven oral medications to control my glucose to…

Two pills. Two.

The aforementioned wonderful endocrinologist said, at the end of the appointment,“Paul… you’ve got a real shot at reducing one more prescription. I think you can do this.”

Sometimes… those last six words are all we need to hear.

On with the words…

Reading - Online

The main take-out for me is that you have to do something that is useful, meaningful, not because people care because they don’t. It doesn’t have to be meaningful to everybody but at least for you. And when we do something meaningful, then unexpected things happens like quality starts to emerge, creativity flourish, you are bound to a direction, expression abounds. Then the purpose becomes apparent.

Here is this week’s two-by-four to the face from (@numericcitizen on Micro.blog). Too much of what we do on a daily basis lacks meaning. Without meaning, no purpose can be discovered. Meaning… then purpose. Trust the process.

I believe that the first step towards becoming a writer is becoming a reader, but the next step is becoming a reader with a pencil. When you underline and circle and jot down your questions and argue in the margins, you’re existing in this interesting middle ground between reader and writer…

Since the start of 2019, I’ve been taking notes and copying passages verbatim from the books I’m reading. Yes… it slows me down… which is what I needed. I found I wasn’t retaining critical pieces of information and overall meaning. It’s made all the difference in the world.

But I’m still not marking up a book, Austin. You do you if you want. 40+ years later, I’m still in mortal fear of Mrs. Stowers, the head librarian at the Union City Public Library in Union City, Tennessee. And if you met her, you… would… be… scared… as well.

Reading - In Print

Finished *Atomic Habits* by James Clear. As someone said,“It’s all common sense.” But if it is indeed all common sense, then why do we not embrace it and improve our lives in rapid fashion? As clear says in the introduction, Atomic Habits is an“operational manual.” I’m taking some time over the next few weeks to document my good habits, bad habits and the habits I want to create. Any framework that helps me keep the first, eliminate the second and instill the third has my attention and obedience.

Started Dreyer’s English by Benjamin Dreyer, the Copy Chief for Penguin Random House. Dreyer’s wit is subtle and his sarcasm is sharp. My kind of writer. (He approves of using sentence fragments.)

Your Week

It’s the middle of the winter. Many parts of the United States took a pounding from Mother Nature. Over here, we’re soldiering on… looking forward to events in the future and taking time to recuperate.

That’s what winters are for. Spring will be here soon enough. Until then, try to carve out some time for quiet reflection and rest. The body and soul need it.

Once I get past that initial week of feeling like it’s a new beginning, the month becomes a slog. Sales at the day job are typically terrible. Nobody is motivated to make decisions. And I’m forced to fight my own mental inertia… which in the past has led to physical inertia.

I’m thankful the month is over and am looking forward to a short but productive month.

Reading - Online

Facebook: We’re helping the world, we’ve made some mistakes in the past but you can trust us.

Chris (@ChrisJWilson on Micro.blog) calls out Facebook for its outright, shameless lying. I’ve enjoyed his takes over the past few weeks and am glad to have found him. He doesn’t trust Facebook… and neither do it… and justifiably so.

Every day at some point, just open up this diary, write today’s date, then start writing. Write what you did today, and how you are feeling, even if it seems boring.

Tip of the hat… as always… as usual… to Patrick Rhone for the pointer to the Sivers post. This is an important piece of blogging that everyone should be reading. And we all really should be implementing his advice. The writing doesn’t need to be perfect. But consistently scribbling will help you clarify your thinking over time.

There are parallels in this post to similar statements in The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll. Just capture everything. You’ll figure out what’s important and vital later.

Reading - In Print

Started Atomic Habits by James Clear. It has turned out to be different from The Power of Habit in many ways. Clear’s work is much more operational and much less theoretical. What I like is the step-by-step process for creating new habits, eliminating bad habits and reforming those that fall somewhere in between.

Started Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut. I stumbled onto this one when dropping by a used bookstore I normally don’t frequent. The selection of classics and non-fiction is limited as the shop caters to those preferring romance, mystery and general popular fiction. This copy was printed in 1973. It isn’t in great condition. But for $2.00, I decided to slip this paperback into my coat and read it when I have a spare moment. Vonnegut’s gallows humor doesn’t fail.

Your Week

I hope you ended January on a high note. Despite the inertia I felt, I managed to exercise for more than half the days of the month and managed to journal, write and read every single day.

Take a hard look at your time and how you spent it in January. Flipping the digital switch off and the analog switch on isn’t difficult… but remembering to do so might be. Is there a way you can change it? I found a couple of small ways. The result was five books completed with a total of 1,824 pages read.

This has made all the difference in my psychological outlook.

I hope you find something this month that changes yours for the better.

In the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. elections, many (including me) in the world asked some variant of the following question. (Some also may have asked the question with the exact same wording.)

How… the… f- - -… did… we… end up… here?

Thousands of think pieces were written and published. Talking heads pontificated. Issues were dissected. Polls (HA!) were conducted. Strategies (or the lack thereof) were analyzed. And characters were blamed.

Not one bit of all of that effort produced any meaningful and comprehensive answer.

So I was justifiably skeptical when novelist and journalist Kurt Andersen decided to tackle the question in his 480 page time titled Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire, A 500-Year History. 500 years? Come now, Mr. Andersen… we’ve only been a nation for less than half that span of time. How could all of this current madness have its roots in the 1600s?

Andersen begins with a simple premise… that those who first colonized North America were more than a little bent in the head. Fleeing the Enlightenment, these intrepid explorers and adventurers were also religious extremists. One need only make a cursory examination of the Puritans, that obscure offshoot sect of Protestantism that left England to found a new Christian kingdom in the New World.

Andersen asserts history doesn’t exactly repeat itself… but it does“rhyme.” The predominance of magical thinking rooted in the delusions of the perpetrators of the Salem Witch Trials is again found in the Satanic Ritual Abuse hysteria of the 1980s. Remember that? This is but one example Andersen provides to support his belief that from the beginning of North American colonization to modern times that America and Americans are indeed exceptions.

Exceptionally bonkers.

Conspiracy theory? People are still talking about the Illuminati. And there is, unfortunately, Alex Jones. Check.

Alternative medicine with no basis in science? From snake oil to today’s celebrity spokesperson telling women to insert jade eggs in their…. Check.

The disbelief and discrediting of experts and institutions. We’ve apparently always had“fake news.” And some of it was, in fact, fake. Check.

Cults of personality? Read Andersen’s take on the Puritan offshoots and it sounds like Billy Graham, Billy Sunday, Joel Osteen and a host of other“Christian” and non-Christian wackos.

At various points, the crazies often somehow interact and couple together in a synergistic orgy of insanity. Left and Right don’t matter. Both sides are complicit and sometimes actually work together… which is more than can be said for the current state of the government. And if that is a possible silver lining to all of this madness, we should all take pause and reflect… or cry.

By the time Andersen hits the tumult of the 1960s, the story line is clear. Add in the force multiplier of the interweb and the needle on the crazy meter isn’t merely redlining, it’s spinning around at speeds faster than light.

Andersen holds all of the big names accountable. Walt Disney, Oprah, multiple presidents and numerous crackpots make appearances and are thoroughly roasted… as they should be. In a time when we need rational thinking the most, we find ourselves surrounded by the proverbial inmates running the proverbial asylum.

Except the inmates are utterly unaware that they are in the asylum because they are insane.

And there is no end in sight.

How did we end up here? individualism at all costs and at the expense of the common good… with a large dose of unchecked delusion at seemingly a genetic level.

But Andersen doesn’t concede all is lost. He does not believe a further slide deeper into Fantasyland is inevitable. Other nations have survived worse turns toward the darkness of their own stupidity and evil. (Paging Prime Minister Chamberlain… Mister… Chamberlain?)

Andersen ends Fantasyland with strict instructions and a possible brighter future. Let us hope the populace is willing to heed his wisdom.

Yes, perhaps we’ve always been crazy. The questions that remain are“How much?” and“How much are we wiling to tolerate?”

Reading - Online

Once we can walk away from unsolvable situations that pretend to be problems, we can focus our energy on the real problems in front of us.
— Seth Godin, “Problems and boundaries”

There’s a reason almost everyone reads Seth Godin. He is indeed a bright fellow. This particular post altered the way I think about“problems.” My attention has too often been diverted by boundary issues, not actual problems. I’ve increased my focus on discerning between the two… and it has helped.

I may lobby for the elimination of the word“great” from the English language… for reasons other than Wade’s advice. That said… this is an interesting approach… full of common sense in a world in which common sense is lacking. I’ve been asked how I’ve won multiple sales awards throughout my career.

Consistently doing the small things with precision. And lo and behold, that approach works just about damn near everything.

Reading - In Print

Finished In the Shadow of Statues by Mitch Landrieu. I spent MLK Day reading this book. Landrieu’s mission to remove Confederate statues from New Orleans in the face of violent threats again confirms the darkness of which mankind is capable. It also demonstrates the courage of individuals who take a stand for what is morally correct. We faced a similar situation in Memphis with the same results. The statues came down.. . but there remains work to be done.

Started A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict by John Baxter. After the two books above, a turn to something a but lighter was needed. Fifty pages in and I’ve learned a lot about the eccentricities of book collectors… mostly that I am one… and I am in good company.

Your Week

Ah… the third full week of January… and almost to the end of the month. Winter has descended on Memphis… a time of overcast skies, temperatures bouncing around forty degrees at a time and… rain… with occasional freezing rain and sleet. I watch people moving in slow motion through their day. This is the very definition of a slog.

Resistance comes in many forms… sometimes in the guise of Mother Nature. I’m fighting it with everything I’ve got.

Unless one lives fully disconnected from the internet (which might not be bad), one will come to The Bullet Journal Method with some preconceived notions. I did… which is why it took me a while to write this review.

I wanted to give this book an objective, fair review. That required blocking out the hype and hoopla about Ryder Carroll’s methodology and focus instead on Mr. Carroll’s methodology and the text of the book. I’m certain Mr. Carroll would find this necessity of approach both hilarious and mildly disturbing.

If you require a summary of the methodology, visit the website. There’s also no need considering the social media saturation. If you want a solid interview with Mr. Carroll, go here.

Instead, I attempted to answer a couple of questions.

First, with the volume of information readily available, is it worth buying this book? After all, the cover price is $26.00 USD.

Mr. Carroll’s system needs only analog tools which can be as inexpensive as one likes. This requirement is the door through which one must enter in order to progress. And for those of us who have already begun the shift back towards more analog and less digital, we know Mr. Carroll is right.

What impresses me most about the book is Mr. Carroll’s voice. He knows what is wrong with the age in which we live. But he does not portray himself and his method as societal saviors. He is a human being sharing his method of coping with his medical disorder. He does not preach. In fact, there are times one senses Mr. Carroll still can’t believe his method has grown into a phenomenon. This is most evident in the volume of quotations found in the text. There were numerous times I wished these had been pared down as they sometimes get in the way of the author’s voice. Mr. Carroll does not need“authorities” to strengthen his work. Mr. Carroll is the authority.

Is there something here for everyone? I believe so.

Those in need of a fresh start at organizing their lives and coping in our distracted age would benefit from committing to the method as presented by Mr. Carroll before refining their individual Bullet Journal approach.

Those with systems already in place won’t find everything necessary or even necessarily new. However, one will find valuable tweaks and ideas which can increase clarity and intent. I am a committed GTD’er to the point that the process is habit. Moving action items and ideas into“Collections” (lists) is nothing new for me.

But, I’ve embraced Rapid Logging as a way to capture information, observations and events throughout the day. The result is faster, more efficient note taking with little to no friction. The ability to review everything from the day as part of my evening reflection has been critical for learning from that day’s events and planning for the day to come. This improvement alone was worth the cover price of the book.

As for those meticulously pretty Instabook pictures of other people’s“BuJos,” Carroll is appreciative of these works of art but emphasizes beauty isn’t necessary.

Mine certainly isn’t. It is utilitarian… minimalist… workmanlike… which is a reflection of how I work and who I am. It’s integrated into a Daytimer, my trusted organizing tool for almost 30 years. A series of blank, seven hole punched, half letter size pages works just as well as any other paper and allows me to arrange and rearrange pages as I wish. This stems from my dislike of Carroll’s indexing methodology. That part of the system doesn’t work for me. And Carroll readily admits in the book that there are portions of the system that may not work for some.

Is the Bullet Journal going to solve world hunger?

No. But if it provides you with even a single way of finding clarity in this distracted and chaotic age, then your money will have been well spent.

Reading - Online

You don’t have to click on the link… because that is the post in its entirety. As usual, Michael Wade drops a truth perfectly summed up in as few words as possible.

I work in the digital printing technology field. It is very rare for my prospective clients to comprehend Wade’s maxim and listen to his advice. And it’s certainly not restricted to my industry. But when I do find a prospective client who comprehends Wade’s words… that is when the magic begins.

There are no perfect systems. Endless incremental tweaking delivers no significant return on effort. Embracing both of those statements will lead to increased productivity and happiness.

I don’t want to contribute any more of me to Facebook’s relentless data marketing machine. The company has not proven themselves worthy as the steward of what I treasure most: my relationships.

I’ve really struggled with how to exit Facebook. Jean MacDonald (@macgenie on micro.blog… who doesn’t get enough credit for the work she is doing) offers her strategy. The post referenced above is written with such a beautiful balance of force and grace that it caused me to gasp… no small feat considering my curmudgeonly cynicism.

Everyone struggling with this decision would do well to read Jean’s post and devote time to focused reflection on it.

Everyone.

… this incident leads to so many larger questions. At some point, the pendulum will swing back. It has done so throughout the history of this nation. Hopefully, it rests somewhere near the center. Let us remember that George Orwell was equally suspicious of both the left and the right.

Something happened with a former colleague. I’ve thought about the incident and the larger impacts every single day for a month. When something bothers me at this level, I’ve learned to pay attention. And I still have no answers.

Reading - In Print

Still working on Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire by Kurt Andersen. I’m about 140 pages from the end. I’m now at the point in the timeline where I remember the incidents that Andersen references. He does a fine job of linking those to the past. I need to read this in the mornings as opposed to bedtime since the prose is dense and requires my mental sharpness (such as it is).

Started The Cyclist’s Training Bible by Joe Friel. I’ve been struggling with my cycling training lately. The owner of Victory Bike Studio in Memphis, the astute and eloquent Clark Butcher, recommended it to me. We’ll see if it helps.

Continuing to read, annotate and process The Tao of Seneca as offered on Tim Ferriss’s website. This is part of a year-long project on Stoicism which I’ll post on this site when completed.

Your Week

I hope it went well for you and that you’re finding some time to stop, reflect and think through whatever challenges you’re facing. There are no easy answers to much of what we face. But I’m confident we’re all intelligent enough to figure it out…

With time, many personal sites and blogs disappeared from the web as people flocked to the big silos where their content became a heavily monetized commodity. To me, the web had lost much of its soul as people gathered in just a few, huge noise chambers.

“Huge noise chambers.” Joe (@jenett on micro.blog) nails it… and the new design of i.webthings looks awesome. There are aspects of our lives that do not need monetization.

And here the key thing was to write the words in your own hand — by this means, by laboriously and carefully copying out the insights of people smarter than you, you could absorb and internalize their wisdom. Call it osmosis-by-handwriting.

Tip of the hat to Phil Nunnally (@twelvety on micro.blog) for this one. Several in the community had a long thread about journaling, information organization and the digital vs. analog divide… which doesn’t really have to exist. I’ll take the side of Mr. Jacobs…“osmosis-by-handwriting” is a good thing… and vital to mental health.

Here’s a question for you. Suppose you want to start a private Facebook group, but you don’t want to use Facebook. What to do?

This is a flawed question. And while I agree with Mr. Winer on many things… yeah… not here. The flaw in the question is“private Facebook group.” There are plenty of ways to create a private group outside of Facebook. I get that Facebook isn’t the entire problem. I get that facebook isn’t the only problem.

But it’s still… a… problem.

Reading - In Print

Completed Churchill & Orwell: The Fight For Freedom by Thomas E. Ricks. This was an excellent book that covers a lot of ground in a relatively small amount of space. Ricks should win an award for this one. His incisive analysis of the similarities and differences between these two individuals is certainly worthy.

Started Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire by Kurt Anderson. Anderson promises to explain how the hell we ended up where we, as a nation, find ourselves today. Thus far, he’s delivering on his commitment… and utterly decimating a number of historical myths along the way. There have been multiple moments where I’ve exclaimed“You gotta be f—ing kidding me.” I have some issues with the lack of footnotes/endnotes but I’ve spot verified his work enough to believe him.

Lack of endnotes/footnotes annoys me to no end. I like to verify… and sometimes I find items in the citations which I then add to my never-ending to-be-read list. C’mon publishers… stop robbing me of my joy.

Your Week

Okay… so here we are… the end of what is essentially the second week of January. We’re past the resolutions and the goal setting. Now it’s about the daily execution. How are you holding up? Finding yourself a bit sluggish? Is the enthusiasm waning?

Yes, my Brothers and Sisters… I feel it as well.

This isn’t a bad feeling. It also isn’t a good feeling. It’s just a feeling. Recognize it as such and place no judgement upon it. Acknowledge it. You can even say,“Hey, Feeling… what’s up? Where did you come from? What are you doing here? Why… are you… here?” I won’t doubt your sanity if you actually say this out loud. I do it.

Then… banish it back from whence it came and get on with getting done that which you must do.

It’s the only way to get through this malaise. At least… it’s the only way I get through this malaise.

]]>http://paulcraig.blot.im/radioactive
http://paulcraig.blot.im/radioactiveMon, 07 Jan 2019 00:00:00 -0600I had these grand plans to furiously bang out thousands of words in January. But an event happened just before Christmas that slowed me down. I needed to think through what happened.

Strike that. I felt compelled to think through what happened.

This is where I need to be as intentionally vague as possible. Here are the sparse details.

I learned that someone I tangentially know was fired from their job right before the holidays. The individual in question was fired after posting conspiracy-laden, anti-Semitic posts on a social media platform. I know this person… but I don’t know this person. I was always aware their politics didn’t align with my beliefs and principles. But I wasn’t aware of the extent of their radicalization.

Newsflash: Neither the left nor the right in their present state align with my beliefs and principles. I am that alleged rarity these days… a moderate… a centrist who evaluates each issue and policy on an individual basis. It means that I feel I inhabit this strange and lonely land. That, of course, is not reality. There are plenty who inhabit this realm… we just don’t talk to each other enough to recognize our similarities… which is a large part of the problem.

The aforementioned individual should have been fired. It was the right decision. I don’t know how this person arrived at this particular place in their life. I don’t care. There is no place in my world for hatred on the basis of race, creed, religion, sexual orientation, gender or any other similar characteristic.

No one wants to hire this person… much less even return their phone call. The word is out and everyone on the proverbial street has heard it. This person has torched every single professional connection in the industry in which they have worked for two decades.

Yeah yeah yeah… free speech. I know. According to the First Amendment, individuals have the right to say what they want. But that constitutional provision… as we all know… doesn’t exempt a person from the consequences.

This person is radioactive.

I have no concern for this person. None. Zero. They are a grown, adult human being who should comprehend that when one chooses their behavior, one chooses their consequences. If this person is ostracized, shunned and ridiculed, so be it. Seriously folks… c’mon… didn’t the world fight a major war over this precise evil eighty years ago?

Here’s what saddens and concerns me. This person has a spouse and children. One of those children has special needs. We can rail all we want about healthcare in the United States… but it doesn’t change the reality we face today. This person needs an income. This person needs excellent health insurance for their family.

I’m concerned for the short-term and long-term well-being of the children. If this person faces long-term unemployment, will the children have enough to eat? Clothing? Shelter? Will they have access to the healthcare they need?

I’m even more concerned for their psychological health. As a parent, I already see my two-year old daughter mimicking me. I see her studying me. Watching me. She’s keenly observant to the point that she’s repeating my words in the appropriate context. (Uh oh!)

What is happening to these children? Are they being radicalized? Are we going to end up with a generation of conspiracy theorist, ultra-right wing, white supremacists frothing at the mouth and glazed eyes fixed upon a certain“news channel?”

These are children. They should be fixated upon Sesame Street, not Sean Hannity.

There’s a part of me that desperately wants to grab this“adult” by the collar and violently shake them while screaming,“What… the… fuck… is… wrong… with… you?”

And this incident leads to so many larger questions. At some point, the pendulum will swing back. It has done so throughout the history of this nation. Hopefully, it rests somewhere near the center. Let us remember that George Orwell was equally suspicious of both the left and the right.

So… what exactly do we do with those who have made themselves radioactive? And what do we do about the innocent who have been or will be harmed by their parent’s thoughts, words and deeds? Do we look these children in the eye and say to them,“Your parent is wrong. What they believe is hate. And it is immoral and unethical.”? Do we advise them to do everything in their power to escape? Do we request intervention from Child Protective Services? And considering how dysfunctional that system is… does that do more harm than good?

I have no answers. None. All I have is a profound and persistent worry… for these children… for all children in these environments. Because this individual’s radioactivity hasn’t just poisoned their career… it is poisoning the very ones they claim to love.

Let us pray we find some way to protect these children lest we find them glowing in the dark.

Ron’s right. Let us turn the pessimism into action. If you don’t like it and you have the ability to change it… then f——— change it. There’s more under our control than we believe.

When you zoom out, however, the cumulative effect of all this swiping and tapping seems to add up to something distinctly negative. Few are happy, for example, after allowing yet another movie night to devolve into side-by-side iPad idling.

The dynamic at play here is that digital activities that are mildly positive in isolation, combine to crowd out other real world activities that are potentially much more satisfying. This is what allows you to love Twitter in the moment when you discover a hilarious tweet, but at the end of the day fear that the app is degrading your soul.

Newport nails in yet another plank in his digital minimalism platform. Digital Minimalism comes out in February. I’ve pre-ordered since I’ve read everything Newport has published and found it all insightful. Perhaps Newport thinks social media is like curry powder… in small doses it provides great flavor… and in high doses it ruins the dish.

I’m tending to think it’s more like arsenic… even a small amount can kill you.

Swing through a bookstore or library and pick up something fun, no matter how respectable or popular it is. Choose something that makes you curious. Read that book in secret, hold it in your heart, and tell no one.

I really enjoy Cheri’s insights on both micro.blog and her personal blog. This post smacked me square between the eyes. It’s a further insight on how social media has changed our lives… and not for the better. This advice from Cheri will be something I immediately implement. I am grateful to her for this wisdom.

Reading - In Print

Ah yes… the beginning of a new year… and already one book added to the list of books read.

Ryder Carroll’s The Bullet Journal Method was a fairly easy read… but there’s more to it than pretty notebooks. I’ll be posting a review of it soon.

Churchill & Orwell: The Fight For Freedom by Pulitzer Prize winning author Thomas E. Ricks caught my eye a few months ago. I’ve pulled it off the stack and dug in. Thus far, it is informative. I’m interested to see how Ricks pulls this off as refining the stories of these two complex human beings is indeed an arduous task.

Your Week

It’s been the first one of 2019. I think we all go into a new year with a mixture of hope and anxiety… especially these days. There’s only one mindset I have right now… and it helps me.

We’re here. We might as well keep going and do the best we can. Because the alternative is depressing as hell. And who knows what might happen if we try.

I hope adopting that mindset helps you.

]]>http://paulcraig.blot.im/2019-social-media-decisions
http://paulcraig.blot.im/2019-social-media-decisionsTue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 -0600Let’s get the simplest one out of the way…

Facebook: Nope. Not posting there. I’ll keep an account only because I buy antique typewriters, card catalogs and other analog stuff on Marketplace. I’ll check it about once a week. Past that… nope.

As for the rest…

Instagram: Very limited use. And only to post links to this blog with a very minimalist image. Yes, I know Facebook owns Instagram… and I’ll evaluate Instagram usage throughout the year.

Twitter: I have two accounts. One is a pseudo-anonymous account I use to follow basketball. I’ll keep that but tweet to a minimum as I have been for a while. The other will be the syndication account for this blog. I’ll use a RSS feed via IFTTT to syndicate links to this blog. Still need to get this fine-tuned before permanently turning it on. And I honestly don’t know if it’s even worth the effort… so I’ll also evaluate that on an ongoing basis.

Goodreads: Likely closing the account. It’s honestly too much of a pain to maintain versus updating a Currently Reading page on Blot. Look, Markdown is just faster. And not everything needs to reside in a database. If someone is that interested in what I’m reading, then they can bookmark the aforementioned page.

I don’t consider micro.blog to be social media. I’ll feed to there and participate in helping build that platform and community in the small ways I can.

And I’ll spend time learning more about using Blot as a hub for everything. The more I learn about it, the more possibilities I discover.

Health

Because without proper management of my condition, I’m sort of screwed on both the micro and macro levels.

HbA1C

The primary indicator of average glucose levels. It’s difficult to explain exactly what it measures. There are plenty of HbA1C critics. I don’t listen to them. My endocrinologist says it is the lead measure… so we go with it.

Goal: 6.0 or lower, which is considered tight control for a Type II diabetic. 5.7 or lower is considered normal.

Weight

Considering the past almost two years of effort, this one should be easy to reach… which is… an evil unto itself. I can’t take this one for granted and lose focus.

Goal: 245 lbs. This would put me at a total weight loss of 100 lbs.

Other Measures

As long as my endocrinologist says it looks fine, I trust it. She monitors the trends and is meticulous.

Professional

Gotta make a living. Right?

Goal: A fifth consecutive year at President’s Club level. And while I don’t know what it will take to achieve that since the new fiscal year begins in April, I’m not worried. I control my efforts… and thus control my results.

Personal

A couple of months after taking up endurance cycling, I decided to start training for RAGBRAI 2019.

Last year’s route, excluding the Century Loop, was 428 miles with 12,576 feet of climb over a 7 day period. I’ll be riding with my father-in-law and a group of his friends. And yes… I am thoroughly doubting my sanity for this.

But at 48… I feel like I need to do this. I feel as if I have something left to prove. And no matter how hard I try to shake this idea… it enters my mind on an almost daily basis. This challenge haunts me… but in a good way.

Goal: Finish the entire ride in the saddle… every inch of it… no SAG except for gear transportation from city to city.

Spiritual

Not sure where this one is leading… but something is calling. Perhaps this has been stimulated by being a father in his late forties. I’m not sure. But I’m going to explore some things and see what happens… in the hopes it makes me a better father and a better husband.

Goal: Read and write daily. No hard metrics… just an intentional practice with no expectations other than a daily commitment.

Summary

For the better part of the last decade, I’ve lived in the mode of running to catch up and get ahead. Some of that was absolutely necessary. Right before my wife and I got married, I realized I needed to push myself hard in order to put in place the infrastructure for a child. This brought on a tremendous amount of change and effort. It was worth it.

Now… simplification and focus are needed… for both the short-term and the long-term. Four focus areas with the absolute minimum number of goals feels right. It feels to be Enough.

So I’ll roll with that and see what happens.

]]>http://paulcraig.blot.im/2018-most-influential-book
http://paulcraig.blot.im/2018-most-influential-bookThu, 27 Dec 2018 19:00:00 -0600This summer, I was psychologically out of sorts and filled with despair for no good reason. I’ve been prone to these blue periods throughout my life.

So… in a season when I found myself at the top of my game professionally… when I found myself with a beautiful wife and daughter… when I found myself in the best physical shape of my life… I could not, for the life of me, figure out why I was so miserable.

I didn’t keep count of the number of books I read throughout the year. A reconstructed list has 56 entries. But I’m really terrible at remembering all of them… because they may have failed to make an impact.

Independently published in 2016 and spanning 137 pages, Enough is a slim volume of essays that cuts to the heart of many modern societal ills. This is not a collection of rants. Rather, Rhone provides for us a way forward. And it is perhaps more important now than on the day it was originally published.

There are plenty of books focusing on minimalism. Bloggers tout it as a life-changing religion. There are documentaries and television segments. Everything is white and gray and sparse. And while there is no doubt it is in the best interests of our mental health to minimize, minimalists can be a bit over the top. It is as if the movement has become a form of perfectionism leading to increased rather than decreased anxiety. That very well could be the definition of a“cult.”

Instead of the deprivation of stark minimalism or the emptiness of rampant consumerism, Rhone advocates for balance… or… Enough.

What is enough for you will be different from what is Enough for me. Also, what is Enough for each of us will change with changing conditions.

It is highly personal. It is a never-ending process of questioning, reflection and introspection. And Rhone is very clear…“Enough is hard work.”

But that work does become easier over time when asking the essential questions as detailed in the Introduction. Those questions help you reach the goal… which is…

The goal… is not to find what is, or will be, Enough forever. That is impossible. The goal is to discover the tools and strategies you need to find what is Enough for you right now and provide the flexibility to adjust as the conditions change.

Read that quote again. The goal is not some utopian state of perfect minimalism.

The goal is attainable… by such flawed beings as ourselves. It is in accepting the foibles and eccentricities of humanity that makes this idea of Enough so important.

Enough allows for the flexibility of changing conditions… because we live in a world that changes on a second to second basis. Enough allows for change… something for which the adherents of stark minimalism fail to account.

In a social media driven world where comparing oneself against the Instabook-perfect lives that we see is a disease (fatal at times), Enough lets humanity off the hook and allows the individual to determine their definitions of the term. And it allows the individual to be… well… individual.

You’re not them. You don’t have to be them. And by the end of Enough, you’re not going to want to remotely resemble them.

After explaining Enough to us with a refreshing, direct honesty yet in a heartfelt tone, Rhone provides some guidance on the practical ways of achieving the goal. He discusses purpose-driven tools and provides concrete strategies. He believes (as do I) that we need to slow down, reflect and then act. His suggested actions are always focused on increasing, rather than decreasing, our personal freedom.

And along the way, Rhone has pointed criticisms of our current technopoly. I believe that somewhere Dr. Neal Postman beams with pride.

Enough came to me from an unexpected source in an unexpected way. These sorts of serendipities restore my faith in humanity. They remind me that despite being a cynical, jaded Stoic, I am somehow still capable of wonder.

Once inside the pages, I discovered a new path… one that has provided me relief, comfort, direction and reinforcement of core values. In a world gone mad, Enough provides vital anchors of sanity.

And Patrick Rhone is a voice of reason who must be heard by everyone struggling to cope in this day and age.

Introduction

Didn’t really set any goals per se this past year. But I had some rough ideas on areas of improvement. These areas of improvement led to some focused goal setting for 2019.

Health

Being a Type II diabetic is a blast. There’s all sorts of fun and games involved. And hey… I’ve got a few complications.

About a year and a few months ago, things started getting bad. I’m not going to go into the details. But with my daughter starting to walk and my mobility being affected, I knew I faced a choice. Both options would involve… pain.

Choice #1: Status quo. This would likely mean living in chronic pain and generally feeling like warmed over feces.

Choice #2: Simplify life… and get to work.

I chose #2. And believe me, there were times when I really wanted to go back to choice #1.

Because there were times I wanted to die.

I began working with a personal trainer. I hit the gym a minimum of five times a week for a minimum of one hour. One… solid… hard… hour. I cut my carbohydrate intake by about 90%. I drank (drink) at least a gallon and a half of water every day. I eliminated sugar everywhere I could. And yeah… it’s everywhere… open your eyes and you’ll be disgusted.

Insulin reduced from 100 units per day to zero. I’m off that infernal needle. (Note: If you’re a Type II diabetic and you do not believe you can get off the infernal needle, you could very well be wrong. The conventional belief may be a damned lie.)

At age 48, my doctor tells me I’m in the best shape she’s ever seen me. I’m on target to lose a remaining 15 pounds to take the total to 100 pounds lost.

The only downside: I’ve had to buy pants four times. I loathe shopping for clothes. But my guys at the men’s clothing store and my tailor have been supportive and encouraging.

Why did I not set goals in 2018?

I was too busy busting my posterior dealing with problem above.

Cycling

Remember when you were a kid and you were out there pedaling your bike and you didn’t have a care in the world? Remember those times?

I hit a wall this past year with my weight loss. I was mad. I was a six foot, ten inch angry man. A close friend and personal trainer looked at me and said,“Man… you need to take up endurance cycling.”

Endurance what?

There are two machines in my life which have my unending, unbreakable love… my Hermes 3000 manual typewriter and my road bike.

I bought the road bike from Clark Butcher and the crew at Victory Bike Studio on Broad Avenue in Memphis. They fitted me, advise me and provide me with feedback on my progress. And after I started cycling, my body fat percentages started plummeting.

The physical changes have been nice. But the psychological changes have been life changing. When I finish climbing a hill with a 30 degree grade, my legs are screaming… but my mind is at peace and I feel a sense of accomplishment. Because a year ago, that feat would have been impossible.

Writing

Because I am feeling better physically… and therefore mentally… I’ve started writing again. It first began coming back to me in off spurts… a phrase here or there… then a paragraph… just random stuff swirling around that I felt compelled to capture.

I went back to mostly composing either by hand on on my beloved Hermes 3000. It makes sense for me… the forced constraint of being unable to quickly delete.

I’m capturing reading notes on index cards… another analog process. I get a lot of strange looks in public… but I’ve also had some fascinating discussions with those much younger. They want to know why I’ve chosen this more analog path. Then, they want to know how to take that path. Since these conversations take place at a local coffee joint, I often run into them later and find them scribbling away in a notebook or on an index card. We smile at each other… and this provides me some measure of hope.

Reading

Didn’t keep track of every book I read in 2018… but I estimate the number surpassed thirty. Most were non-fiction.

I’m saving the revelation of the most influential book I read in 2018 for a separate post… because that work and its author earned it.

I’ve intentionally carved out more time for reading… which meant saying no to things in my life that were delivering little to no value.

In speaking of little to no value…

Social Media

In October, I stopped posting to Facebook. I decreased my Twitter usage and restricted tweeting to basketball game nights with the occasional snarky retort at other times. These were the only two social media platforms in which I was engaged.

Do I miss it? No.

Do I believe it was having a deleterious effect on my mindset? In that spending time there versus spending time exercising, reading and writing was harmful? Yes.

Choices, choices, choices… and this is all that needs to be said on this subject.

Professional

Our fiscal year at work is weird. It ends in March. For FY2017, I finished #1 in the country. Through the end of calendar year 2018, I’m above expectations… theirs and mine. As long as I am doing good work, I’m pleased with the results.

The Impact of Micro.blog

I’m not sure how I stumbled into micro.blog. At first, I looked at the whole thing with my head tilted to the side and said,“What… is… this?”

Here’s what it is: A collection of interesting voices who passionately believe in independent publishing… who believe in the web, not walled gardens… who have sought refuge from dependency, surveillance and disintegration. There are no memes. There are wanderings, wonderings, ponderings and opinions constructed with the solid foundations of sentences and paragraphs. The signal-to-noise ratio is high… and we need more of this in a slogan-filled, soundbite-driven world.

It feels like the way the web used to be… like the way it should be.

I confess I don’t understand how all of it works. But… micro.blog led me to Blot… which led me to establishing an online place for my writing that makes sense to me. Micro.blog has given me more to read and ponder than any other single online source in a decade. And it has eroded my cynical conclusion that the internet went to hell and would never recover.

And that isn’t a bad way to end 2018… with some renewed faith in the possibilities of technology… as long as it is driven not by algorithms… but by people.

2019: Looking Forward

Am I excited for 2019?

No. I don’t get excited by much.

But I am looking forward to accomplishing one or two things. I’ll post about those some other time once the thoughts are fully formed. There’s nothing that says I have to have all of this figured out by the end of December 31st.

Whatever you wish to do in 2019… I hope you do it. Part of getting it done is believing you can. For a long time, I was resigned to being morbidly obese, slow and accepting the downhill slide into the grave. My daughter took her first steps and I decided it was time to fight against the Resistance.

I found my reason. You can find your reason too.

]]>http://paulcraig.blot.im/christmas-eve-essential-guidance
http://paulcraig.blot.im/christmas-eve-essential-guidanceMon, 24 Dec 2018 00:00:00 -0600Heinz-Ulrich von Boffke served up some essential guidance back in November. This found its way into my RSS feeds via Cultural Offering this morning.

Although it is a list of advice for the holiday season and we’re well into this time of the year, we’ve still got time to heed Boffke’s instructions.

Around here…

We didn’t leave things to the last minute. A couple of small tasks to complete today and I’m done.

Saying no. Two years ago, after the birth of our daughter, we decided we would not travel for Christmas again. If extended family (who are permitted to have contact with us) decide they want to come see us, they’re welcome to come to us. This has allowed us to get everything we need to get done with plenty of time to spare. We’ve declined invitations, refused to fight the traffic and generally withdrawn from society.

A scaling back. We’re certainly not minimalists but we’ve become essentialists. The number of gifts under the tree are smaller in number this year. The toddler’s toys are fewer. She has plenty… and her big gift this year is a new bed… which she seems to be enjoying.

Boxing Day plans. Plans? Ha! No.

Doing it all? Hard pass.

Ample time for myself, my wife and my daughter. Check. My mother will visit later in the week for three days. Past that… we will spend this time together.

Simple things. Since we’re“celebrating” with my mother in a few days, our Christmas Day meal will be a pot of homemade chicken and vegetable soup. The toddler will probably get mac and cheese… because… well… the toddler eats mac and cheese. With peas. The adults will drink a lot of coffee, read books, perhaps watch some basketball and relax. I might scribble a few words… but that will only occur if I feel moved to do so.

Toxic people. Hard hard hard pass. Our tolerance for toxicity (and intolerance) is non-existent. I’ve stopped responding in those situations and remove myself from the situation. This is a viable strategy that works. Either the person gets it and changes their behavior or they don’t. Either way, life is too short for their BS.

The putting up of the feet. There will be no running amok. There was a time when we couldn’t run amok… because every store and shop was closed on Christmas Day… because nobody did anything other than relax. We’re embracing that this year… as we did last year. We have more than enough… and we’re thankful for that.

Do what you need to do. Lock the doors if you must. Toss the smartphone in a locked safe. Turn off the news. Politely inform a visitor that it is time for them to depart. Implement a quiet time after the opening of presents or the consumption of your meal.

I implore you to take whatever action you need to take to find peace. Please. Please. Please.

Most of all, I hope… and pray… everyone finds some peace today and tomorrow. Peace of mind… peace of soul… whatever variety of peace you need.

Because now more than ever… we need it.

]]>http://paulcraig.blot.im/workflow
http://paulcraig.blot.im/workflowSun, 23 Dec 2018 00:00:00 -0600Friction elimination and organization in the writing process. Oh how I have worked so hard to find something that works. And from what I read on the interwebs, this seems to be a struggle for a lot of writers.

The solution below works for me… for the moment. It might not work in the future. The tools may change. My micro.blog sister, Joyce Garcia-Buxton, is happy with her status quo. And if you’re happy with your status quo, I’m happy for you.

I wasn’t happy. In fact, I was frustrated. I went in search of a different way with some specific goals.

The System Must Get Out Of The Way

My chief issue with Wordpress since the advent of Gutenberg was the introduction of unnecessary friction. Okay… my chief issue with Wordpress before the advent of Gutenberg was the introduction of unnecessary friction.

I kept saying… over and over…“There’s got to be a better way to do this. I’m spending more time and energy tweaking and less time and effort writing. This is BS.”

Organization… Necessary And Vital

Posts, pages, quotes, images… and anything else I can imagine. I required organization of all of these types. I needed organization of the drafts and the final versions. And I needed to be able to quickly find the desired creation.

Separate Tools For Composing and Publishing

I had zero desire to go back to a system whereby I was editing native html files and uploading via FTP. I had zero desire to continue using a database-driven system like Wordpress or Joomla or something else.

I wanted a tool to compose and organize my writing and a separate tool for online publishing.

Cross-Platform Within My Chosen Ecosystem

For better or worse, Apple is my chosen ecosystem. At this point, I’m locked in and haven’t seen any real reason to migrate to something else. For all of its foibles and my quibbles with Apple, the ecosystem works for me.

Fast and accurate syncing was an absolute requirement since I often bang out a few words on my iPhone when I’m not in front of my laptop.

The Solution

I’ve been able to narrow this down to three tools:

Bear

Dropbox

Blot

Tools

All drafting is done in Bear, a notes app for MacOS and iOS with great syncing capability. Bear offers tagging with secondary levels which provides organizational capability. Most importantly, it exports to Markdown… which allows me to perform 99% of the necessary styling.

I already had a Dropbox Pro account. My day job is information intensive and having locally stored documentation was essential. Sometimes I need to pop open my MacBook Pro when in front of a client and refer to a document without being forced to go online.

What I didn’t know was that there existed a blogging platform which used Dropbox to serve files.

Blot is a blogging platform with no interface. None. No logging into a web interface. No plugins to manage.

It creates a special folder inside of your Dropbox account and publishes the files you put inside of the folder. Text, Markdown, Word, Images, Bookmarks and HTML.

The Workflow

Compose in Bear

Bear notes can be opened in a separate window which provides a distraction-free writing experience. I’ve developed a series of templates in Bear which allows me to duplicate and then customize the note with Blot’s metadata. The metadata is straightforward and unobtrusive.

Keeping the drafts organized in Bear does require a bit of Markdown wrangling. In order to tag in Bear without the tags appearing in the rendered posts, I use the following syntax:

[//]: <> (#blot/INSERT TAG HERE)

This creates a comment which Bear interprets as a tag but Blot ignores in rendering. It looks strange but it works. To avoid remembering the above code, I created a snippet in aText… a $4.99 (as of this writing) MacOS app requiring no subscription. I chose this app once TextExpander changed its business model.

Styling is applied inside the draft as I write. Bear’s keyboard shortcuts make this painless.

Once finished…

Export to Markdown

Bear natively exports to Markdown in addition to other file format. When exporting, you’re prompted to save to a folder… which leads to…

Save to Dropbox

Saving the exported Markdown file to the appropriate Dropbox folder within the Blot main folder is the last step of the process. I have four folders within the Blot main directory:

Drafts

Posts

Pages

Templates

The first three are self-explanatory. You can preview your drafts by double-clicking on the automatically rendered HTML file in the Drafts folder. You can either make corrections and re-export or simply move the Markdown file to the Posts folder if no revisions are required.

Pages do not appear in the main Blot blog feed. I plan on developing a series of pages I’ll frequently update. Examples will be a list of books I’ve read in a particular year, books I’m currently reading and others.

Blot provides a set of templates that can be customized. I found the Default template just fine but cloned it to make minor alterations to both the CSS and the Entries template.

Results

It takes longer to explain the workflow than it actually takes for the workflow to work.

My writing for my Blot site now has a workflow that is relatively frictionless and organized. Granted, it took me a few days to tweak the Blot template, create the Bear templates and learn a little bit of Markdown. But that is a fast front-end loaded process compared to the hours spent futzing with Wordpress.

Discussion

I’ve had a few people reach out to me asking if this is a solution I would recommend. I can’t answer that question because so much of this is a matter of individual choice.

If Wordpress or some other CMS works for you, then embrace it. For my wife’s author website, Blot isn’t the answer. Her site needs to do more than mine.

For those who wish to compose and publish quickly with minimal (actually… zero) intrusion from an interface, this workflow could be an answer.

At $20 per year, Blot is a bargain. Even if you don’t decide to utilize Blot, buying an annual subscription is a great way to support David Merfield, this project… and the Indieweb at large.

]]>http://paulcraig.blot.im/contemplation
http://paulcraig.blot.im/contemplationSat, 22 Dec 2018 00:00:00 -0600Contemplation Contemplating warmer days, inflatable pools and lots of splashing. ]]>http://paulcraig.blot.im/house-of-salt-and-sorrows
http://paulcraig.blot.im/house-of-salt-and-sorrowsSat, 22 Dec 2018 00:00:00 -0600A little over two years ago, I was headed out the door to go to work. It was early August. My wife was sitting on the couch cradling our newborn daughter and scribbling in a notebook.

She knew she was on to something. I had no idea.

I was merely happy that my wife and newborn daughter were doing relatively well after a long night. So… I went to work. Like I do.

A few months later, my wife told me she had been signed by a literary agent. I kept going to work. Like I do.

My wife called me at work a few months later and told me her literary agent had received an offer from a publisher. I suggested she accept the offer. She did.

Along the way, I was informed as to what was happening. Publishing (like life) is a bit of a roller coaster. As I was being informed along the way, I kept going to work. Like I do.

Last night, right before Christmas, a box arrived from the publisher. It contained the ARCs (Advance Reader’s Copies).

House of Salt and Sorrows

House of Salt and Sorrows will be published by Delacorte Press (Penguin Random House) in August 2019.

It is a lead title. It is edited by Wendy Loggia. The author is represented by Sarah Landis at Sterling Lord.

The author is Erin A. Craig… my wife.

And I’m a very proud husband… who will keep going to work.

]]>http://paulcraig.blot.im/friday-night-review-12-21-2018
http://paulcraig.blot.im/friday-night-review-12-21-2018Fri, 21 Dec 2018 00:00:00 -0600It’s the return of the Friday Night Review… except this one got written in a hotel room in the early morning hours. Because business travel is so much fun.

Reading - Online

What we lost in this shift from the hyperlink to The Stream was the ability to encounter diverse ideas, radical insight, and transformative new perspectives. What we got instead was more of what we already know, delivered like a pre-masticated paste, easy to digest and sure to please…

Newport does it yet again. He sums up exactly what happened in the six short years from 2008 to 2014. When I encounter those who rail against media behemoths that need to be regulated, I often hear about Sinclair or Fox or Comcast. I rarely hear them mention Facebook or other social media companies. This causes me to laugh. But there’s a darkness inside of that laughter.

I made a lot of progress in 2018 in focusing on the vital few. I’ve still got a lot of work to do in 2019 on focusing on the vital few.

I’ve started playing defense with my task list. If a request comes flying toward it, I’m doing my best to swat it away and keep only that which is necessary. A massively long task list is, for me, a sign that something is wrong. That something is usually me.

The Future Book is here and continues to evolve. You’re holding it. It’s exciting. It’s boring. It’s more important than it has ever been.

Mod reviews the changes to publishing over the past decade or so. I work in digital printing and have been an up close witness to many of these changes.

We don’t need“exciting” books in the sense that the form brings us virtual reality or video interviews with the authors or… whatever. What we need are well-written works (of which there are plenty) and time and space to focus upon them (which is entirely our choice).

Which leads to…

Reading - In Print

The past few weeks have been busy and I’ve failed miserably in my endeavors to spend more time with a book in my hands.

That will change starting… today. I’m on an extended break from the day job and suspect there might be a tome or two (or thirty) under the Christmas tree for me. It will be a very Penguin Random House Christmas… for reasons that will become clear soon.

Your Week

I hope you’re managing to wind down the week with a sense of accomplishment. This is the time of year for me when I look forward to copious cups of coffee, stacks of index cards, pens, books and time away from the world. I’ll probably squeeze in a Memphis Grizzlies basketball game and a long bike ride or two.

]]>http://paulcraig.blot.im/two-years
http://paulcraig.blot.im/two-yearsThu, 20 Dec 2018 00:00:00 -0600It’s been two years since I made a series of life-altering decisions.

In the aftermath of the 2016 election, I withdrew from a number of people. Some gradually. Others suddenly.

In a world truly gone mad, I found there were individuals in my life who had lost their common sense and their sense of decency.

Some of these individuals were mere acquaintances. Others I considered friends. A few were“family.” The use of the quotation marks is intentional.

All of them had to go.

Some were on the political left, some on the political right. There were a couple of agnostics and atheists. The majority self-identified as“Christians.” Again, the use of quotation marks is intentional.

For a long time, I was angry at them… and at myself. Mostly at myself. I was angry at myself because I apparently failed to see them as they are… as opposed to who I thought they are.

The mere thought of one or two of those individuals still stirs rage in my heart and soul. I suppose that is to be expected.

In retrospect, it was past time to jettison those relationships. I had poured too much energy and effort into maintaining them.

There really was a part of me that wanted to believe the best about humanity… that we had gotten past the evils of the 20th century (and centuries prior). I was angry at myself for being delusional.

I see the world as it is with a newfound yet developed clarity. And I’ll unfortunately be forced to teach this to my daughter at a younger age than I ever would have liked. Neal Postman’s The End of Childhood is on my bedside TBR pile and is proof that the Book Gods are in their Heaven and watching over my wretched and bereft soul.

I’m not a young man. I’m forced by this circumstance to train her to see the world as it is so she can hopefully survive and thrive. There will be a day when I won’t be here with her. Being a first-time father approaching fifty years of age forces me in some ways to think differently than younger fathers… and to act accordingly.

There will be a day when she asks me about some of those individuals. She might see them in a picture. Perhaps a mutual acquaintance will be unaware of the severed relationship. My daughter will ask who they are… their relation to me… and perhaps what they meant to me.

No matter how much time passes… that conversation will be difficult.

But I will explain to her that those individuals weren’t who I thought they were. Or that they evolved… or devolved… into someone with whom I could not have a relationship… because their principles (or lack thereof), values (or lack thereof) and/or beliefs (or lack thereof) were anathema to me.

And I will teach her that it is perfectly acceptable to dislike an individual and disassociate oneself from them.

And as for my life today…

I am happier without those individuals in it. The cognitive and psychological weight was lifted. The voids have mostly been filled with new relationships worthy of my time, attention and energy. There has been a new and different definition to the word“family.”

Most of all, I move forward… confident that my decisions were right and just and good… and that I will be a better father and husband for making them.

Over the years, Wordpress has become an unwieldy beast. It stole the joy of writing from more than one blogger. Gutenberg, the new block-based editor, gives the blogger yet one more thing to manage.

Gone are the days of banging out a post, hitting publish and then working on the next piece. Gutenberg has added unnecessary steps to the writing process.

In short, it kills… strike that… it murders flow.

Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Nobody.

Especially me.

I’ve got a wife, a toddler daughter, and a very challenging full-time job. I eke out a few minutes every day to do that which nourishes my soul.

Reading and writing.

And lately, my output (writing) has been next to zero.

I’m tired of managing plugins. I’m tired of managing themes. I’m tired of wrangling metadata. I’m beyond tired of trying to manage the growing complexity of the Wordpress platform. And I am damn sick and tired of the endless updates and tweaking and other miscellaneous horseshit.

Yes, I know I can still utilize the Classic editor. That’s not the point. The point is that Wordpress has become too damned complex for me… and I suspect too damned complex for many others.

I honestly have no idea if blot is the answer. I don’t know if there is a single answer.

But here is what I do know…

In the last fifteen minutes, I’ve banged out this post. I composed it in Bear, exported it to Markdown, saved it in a Dropbox folder… and Blot published it and rendered it.

And you know what… the experience has been…

Joyful…

Productive…

Satisfying…

… and I feel a sense of accomplishment.

Patrick Rhone (a personal hero) was right. It is up to each of us to find what is… enough.

And it is up to us to determine when we have had…. enough.

I’ve made my decision. This is where I put a stake in the ground. This is where I begin anew.